Stagger under Garbage Stench: BITS Pilani

As abhorrent smell emanating from the Jawaharnagar dumpyard, students of BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad, are anguish.

The BITS Pilani campus in Shameerpet mandal, houses over 4,000 students from across the country. The smell due to the unscientific dumping of garbage is making their lives miserable.

Swapnil Deveraneni, a third-year electronics and communications student said “The stench becomes intense from6 pm to 3 am. This is also affecting the health of the residential students.”

“We have run several campaigns to highlight the issue and also petitioned the departments concerned. But it was of no use,” said Shashank. Students from all across India will come to college to attend annual several popular sciences, cultural and other programmes.

“From this academic year we are also admitting foreign students,” Prof V.S. Rao, director, BITS-Pilani, Hyd. There are other high profile institutions in the area like ICICI Knowledge Park, Nalsar, and SP Bio-Tech Park in the vicinity.

“The un-capped dump is spread over 100 acres in the form of a hillock. We took charge of solid-waste management in 2009 and have been doing it effectively since. Earlier, it was the GHMC’s responsibility. Now, the dump emanates methane and also hydrogen sulphide. We are ready to cap and treat the garbage, but only if the GHMC funds it,” said Ramky Corp, associate vice-president, Vanamalai Venkatesh.